City of Joliet v. New West, L.P.

825 F.3d 827, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 10990, 2016 WL 3361519
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJune 17, 2016
DocketNo. 15-2183
StatusPublished
Cited by22 cases

This text of 825 F.3d 827 (City of Joliet v. New West, L.P.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
City of Joliet v. New West, L.P., 825 F.3d 827, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 10990, 2016 WL 3361519 (7th Cir. 2016).

Opinion

EASTERBROOK, Circuit Judge.

For more than a decade, the City of Joliet, Illinois, has been attempting to condemn the two buildings of the Evergreen Terrace housing complex. In 2005 it filed a condemnation action in state court, and the proceeding was removed to federal court. New West, the complex’s owner, went on the offensive with a suit of its own under the Fair Housing Act and other federal statutes. We concluded in New West, L.P. v. Joliet, 491 F.3d 717 (7th Cir. 2007), and Joliet v. New West, L.P., 562 F.3d 830 (7th Cir. 2009), that no rule of federal law unconditionally blocks the condemnation action, and we directed the district court to decide it with dispatch. 491 F.3d at 721; 562 F.3d at 839.

About three and a half years after the second of these decisions, the condemnation suit finally went to trial. It took 100 days of court time, spread over more than a year and a half of calendar time. The district court then issued a lengthy opinion holding that Joliet is entitled to possess (and demolish) Evergreen Terrace. 2014 WL 4667254, 2014 U.S. Dist. Lexis 130800 (N.D. Ill. Sept. 17, 2014). This decision resolved the merits but not the amount of compensation. Illinois law (which applies under Fed. R. Civ. P. 71.1(k)) requires a jury for the valuation decision, though not for the decision whether the government is entitled to .take the property. 735 ILCS 30/10-5-5(a). A jury concluded that New West and its affiliates (and lenders) are entitled to $15,077,406 as just compensation. After additional delay caused by post-decision motions practice in the district court, the controversy has made its way back to us.

New West (as we call all appellants collectively) contends that Evergreen Terrace is not dilapidated and that the City’s suit should have been rejected on that ground, and on the further ground that razing the buildings would have a disparate impact on its predominantly black tenants, in violation of the Fair Housing Act. The district judge, as trier of fact, rejected both of these arguments. His conclusions — including the conclusions about the nonexistence of discriminatory intent or disparate impact — are findings of fact for the purpose of appellate review. See Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U.S. 273, 102 S.Ct. 1781, 72 L.Ed.2d 66 (1982). This means that they must stand unless clearly erroneous. See Fed. R. Civ. P. 52(a)(6); Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U.S. 564, 105 S.Ct. 1504, 84 L.Ed.2d 518 (1985). We [829]*829hold that none of the critical findings is clearly erroneous.

A lengthy recitation of the facts is unnecessary. Anyone with a craving for detail has only to read the district court’s opinion. The appeal can be resolved in considerably fewer words.

The judge found that Joliet is entitled to condemn the complex for two reasons: first, it is dilapidated and crime-ridden; second, the City plans to use the land to extend the existing Riverwalk park along the Des Plaines River. 2014 WL 4667254, at *9-16, 2014 U.S. Dist. Lexis 130800 at *83-57. The findings are supported by testimony, data (such as the number of crimes committed daily at Evergreen Terrace), the fact that an extension of the park has been planned since 1990, and a report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. New West says that the judge should have drawn inferences more favorable to its position. Perhaps the judge could have ruled for New West, but the record contains far too much evidence in Joliet’s favor for a court of appeals to declare the judge’s findings to be clearly erroneous.

This leaves the question whether condemnation would violate the Fair Housing Act, either because Joliet set out to discriminate against blacks (disparate treatment) or because closure of Evergreen Terrace would have an unjustified disparate impact on black residents. The district judge found that Joliet acted for reasons unrelated to race (the ones we mentioned above). Id. at *16-17, *17-18, 2014 U.S. Dist. Lexis 130800 at *57-63, 65-68. Although the judge recognized that one former member of the city council had made racist comments several years before the City began the condemnation suit, the judge found that other members of the council did not share those views. Id. at *17, 2014 U.S. Dist. Lexis 130800 at *63-64. The judge added that it would be implausible to attribute anti-black intent to the City, because as part of this litigation it agreed with the Department of Housing and Urban Development to create at least 115 new low-income housing units and provide housing vouchers for all remaining residents at Evergreen Terrace, so that they could secure low-income housing at places of their choice within the City (or anywhere else in Will County).

New West contends that the judge erred in considering the settlement with HUD, but it was admissible (it is a public document of which the court could take judicial notice). True enough, the settlement is a promise, and promises sometimes are broken. But breaking one’s promise to a federal agency — a promise reiterated to a federal judge — is risky, and the judge was entitled to conclude that Joliet is likely to keep this promise. The judge observed that Joliet’s own redevelopment plan, adopted before it started the condemnation action, is “practically identical to the terms of the HUD settlement agreement.” Id. *17, 2014 U.S. Dist. Lexis 130800 at *61.

According to New West, the vouchers are useless because owners will not rent to persons displaced from Evergreen Terrace. The district judge found otherwise, and once again that finding is supported by the record. Joliet had a population of 148,000 at the 2010 census, and a city of that size should not have difficulty finding room for 240 or so families with housing vouchers. The judge observed that the population of Joliet Township is about a quarter black. Id. at *17, 2014 U.S. Dist. Lexis 130800, at *62. Only a small fraction of the black population is affected by the closure of Evergreen Terrace, which implies that space elsewhere will be available.

New West relies more heavily on its disparate-impact theory than on its disparate-treatment theory. About 95% of Evergreen Terrace’s residents are black, [830]*830and New West contends that this means that its closure must have a disparate impact. Since § 804(a) of the Fair Housing Act, 42 U.S.C. § 3604(a), forbids actions with unjustified disparate impact, see Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc., — U.S. -, 185 S.Ct. 2507, 192 L.Ed.2d 514 (2015), New West maintains that closure necessarily violates the Act.

The district judge thought that the racial composition of Evergreen Terrace is the wrong starting point. Instead the judge asked whether closure of Evergreen Terrace affects a substantial fraction of all blacks in Joliet.

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Bluebook (online)
825 F.3d 827, 2016 U.S. App. LEXIS 10990, 2016 WL 3361519, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/city-of-joliet-v-new-west-lp-ca7-2016.